Patience 2014

Patience is not simply a prestige cuvee. It is the result of more than a decade of restraint — reserve wines held back from Squerryes' finest vintages, and only the bottles that genuinely proved themselves allowed to carry the name. The inaugural 2014 release runs to just 3,000 bottles.

The fruit comes off a single site on the chalk of Kent's North Downs, planted in 2005 at around 150 metres. It is the same chalk that runs under Champagne, and in a vintage as good as 2014 you taste it plainly. The blend is 35% Chardonnay, 34% Pinot Noir and 31% Pinot Meunier, and the wine then sat 108 months on its lees — nine years — before being disgorged in May 2024 at 5g/L dosage. No oak anywhere near it.

What comes out of the bottle is startlingly pale for its age, with no hint of the amber you might expect after eleven years. The perfume is chalk first and foremost, with a fine thread of lemon and lime zest over the top. The palate arrives crystalline and direct — nine years on lees have built texture without softening the line — and the finish is scouringly chalky, driven by an acidity that shows no sign of tiring. Give it half an hour in the glass and it opens out considerably.

Matthew Jukes called it the finest English sparkling wine he has tasted. That is a large claim and this bottle carries it. Drink now or cellar with confidence into the late 2030s.

Presented in a keepsake box with brass opener and agrafe closure, Patience feels every bit as considered as the liquid inside. A bottle for milestones, long lunches that turn into evenings, and the sort of occasions you remember properly.

How to Serve

8 to 10°C, and use a white wine glass rather than a flute — a wine this fine needs room to show the chalk. Open it half an hour before you pour, and don't serve it fridge-cold.

Where to Drink It

Scott's in Mayfair, where a bottle like this belongs beside a plate of native oysters. Wiltons on Jermyn Street for the full occasion. The River Cafe on a summer evening, if the moment calls for the water.

Food Pairings

Native oysters, plainly, with nothing but the wine. Or push it to Dover sole on the bone with brown butter — the chalk and the acidity carry it easily.